Hertog, DiMenna Aid Historical Society’s $70 Million Facelift

The fortress-like structure has stood since 1908 at Central
Park West and 77th Street. Built by bank architects, it offered
little of the visitor magnets other museums have acquired in
recent years, like grand entrances, cafes and high-tech
exhibits.

“It was constructed as if it were a vault,” said Louise Mirrer, the society’s president and chief executive officer.
“It hid the treasures within so that they would be safe.”

When the Historical Society hosts its reopening party
tonight, after a three-year, $70 million renovation, guests will
walk up a widened staircase to reach the new airy, glass-
enclosed entrance on Central Park West.

Visitors are greeted by the 3,400-square-foot Robert H. and
Clarice Smith New York Gallery, visible from the street, where
touch screens and museum artifacts illuminate the city’s
history.

“We wanted a building that made our treasures transparent
so that passers-by on Central Park West could look through our
glass doors and see history,” Mirrer said.

Other highlights on the first floor are two high-tech
kiosks detailing the organization’s mission, an elegant theater
for films and lectures, plus an Italian restaurant specializing
in small plates from the Veneto region.

Pride of place goes to two new statues of Abraham Lincoln
and black abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass. Lincoln
made the famous speech at Cooper Union that helped launch his
presidential bid, while Douglass came to the city by boat after
escaping from slavery, becoming a good friend of Lincoln’s.

‘Made in New York’

“Most people don’t think of them as New York figures,”
Mirrer said. “We argue that Lincoln was made in New York.
Douglass became a free man in New York and writes about walking
down Broadway with throngs of people and feeling like another
human being.”

The nonprofit hired the New York-based architectural firm
of Platt Byard Dovell White to modernize and open up the museum.
The cost grew from $65 million to about $70 million, Mirrer
said, but donors stepped forward despite the economic downturn.
Board members, including chairman Roger Hertog, vice chairman
emeritus of AllianceBernstein, and brokerage firm founder
Richard Gilder, made gifts of $10 million or more, she added.

Hedge-fund manager Joe DiMenna and his wife, Diana, gave $5
million to create the 4,000-square-foot DiMenna Children’s
History Museum in the building’s subterranean level.

“We raised all the money, and we have no debt,” Mirrer
noted. “That’s a marvelous thing to be able to say.”

Tonight’s party will kick off with a dedication ceremony
and a screening of the film “New York Story,” narrated by
actor Liev Schreiber.

(The New York Historical Society opens to the public on
Nov. 11. Information: +1-212-485-9262;
http://www.nyhistory.org.)